The present invention is localized, in a general way, in the dental hygiene field, especially in field of toothbrushes that do not use handles, and more particularly, in that of non-disposable portable toothbrushes, to be carried in a specially designed package, in pockets or inside a small pouch or handbag, hence the user may always have at his disposal a good quality toothbrush.
Devices for dental hygiene in the form of toothbrushes are objects of daily use, have been known since way back, those usually most found in the market are toothbrushes of the type that have handles to be held in the user""s hand during their use.
Thus, the toothbrushes with a handle that, at one end, have a head with bristles for brushing are very well known and common.
Less common are the brushes for dental hygiene with no handle, which have been proposed in a way that they can be fixed to the user""s finger, generally the index finger, that functions as the stem, or handle, of the said brush.
Though there are not easily found in the dental hygiene market, many models have been imagined and are incorporated in the state of the art.
Thus, for example, Schulze patent U.S. Pat. No. 463,309, of the end of the XIX century (1891), already published a device for cleaning teeth to be used applied on the user""s finger, which did not use a bristle brush, as is known today, instead it only had a piece of cloth, in a format that wrapped round the finger.
On the other hand, Nesper patent U.S. Pat. No. 1,157,413 (October, 1915) made public a tooth cleaning device, to be applied as well on a finger for support, also made of cloth, to be used specially with a tooth paste or liquid or powder. This device used a string to be tied to the finger.
Nenning patent U.S. Pat. No. 1,894,413, of 1933, refers to a hand disposable sanitary article, also to be applied on the finger, produced of impermeable paper or cloth, having one closed end, with a sewn band to hold a set of brush bristles.
The Welker patents of 1937, U.S. Pat. No. 2,075,681 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,077,540 referred to devices for dental hygiene also adapted to a finger. The former regards to a device of temporary use, for voyagers, to be offered in hotels and rented cars, wrapped in sanitary paper, also disposable. The latter patent, similar to the previous one, was imagined to adapt itself to fingers of different sizes.
Cameron patent of 1961, U.S. Pat. No. 2,966,691, also referred to a disposable toothbrush, to be applied on one finger, characterised for comprising a body of material in such a form that it would work as a pocket, that would be relatively firm when dry and flexible when humid, containing zigzag edges with no bristles.
Bori patent of 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,694, also showed a device to be applied on a finger, characterised by being tubular, having a cleaning surface comprising a plurality of concave surfaces, with internal and external edges, such surfaces adapted to clean the tooth complementary surface.
Also the Salman patent, of 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,428, showed a disposable toothbrush, produced of biodegradable material, to be adapted to the index finger and that included a set of dehydrated toothpaste impregnated bristles, also having a hygiene accessory locate on the opposite side, containing a hygiene liquid.
Also in 1993, the Rosen patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,433, was published regarding a dental applicator to be used on one of the user""s fingers, in the form of a flexible foil with drugs, abrasive and cleaning material, not using bristles.
The Drulias patent of 1995, U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,482, also showed a toothbrush to be applied on one of the user""s fingers, made by flexible material, which can be a prophylactic rubber, in the form of a finger glove, having a base where disposable bristles are located and that contain a impregnated toothpaste substance.
The Carr patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,252, of 1998, presented a device applied on the finger to brush teeth, which included a part constituted of tips and a part with a sheath, having it interior made of a wrinkly texture material so as not to slip off the finger and the sheath could roll along the device for better attachment. Bristles and small balls could form the part of tips, this part could be covered by dehydrated toothpaste.
Adams patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,599, also of 1998, presented substantially a tubular device for the finger having an open end to receive a finger and the other end closed, where a cleaning head was adapted. It made up a dental hygiene packet that included the toothbrush itself and a toothpaste package.
Finally, the Reinold patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,513 of March, 1999, was published revealing a toothbrush to be applied on one of the user""s fingers, that includes an elastic cover, made of a resilient elastic material, which is placed on the inside of the finger""s end, having a region of tips on its outside, constituted by cleaning bristle elements. An attachment element is provided on the second end of the elastic cover so that, when placed on a finger, the attachment element reaches the centre of the user""s palm.
Although the toothbrush cleaning devices applicable to a finger, of the kind described above, already incorporated to the state the art, meet the purposes for which they were proposed, they have various problems and deficiencies, commented below, that have been solved by the present invention, object of this descriptive report.
The devices analysed were designed to be basically disposable and made of some cloth, impermeable paper or thin rubber, in the form of a tube, as described above, some using disposable bristles being, in some cases, impregnated with dehydrated toothpaste.
The devices presented in general must be attached to the user""s finger by pressure, in its entire surface, sometimes tied by an elastic thread, or by a type of string, or even having an elastic part that pulls it up to the palm, or even constituting a complete uncomfortable glove.
All the devices until then imagined presented some or all the characteristics above and are disposable.
Such devices of the previous art have, therefore, a series of problems and disadvantages that, by the way, seems to fully justify their absence in the toothbrush market.
Examples of the deficiencies and disadvantages existing devices are:
They are difficult to be attached to the finger;
They easily get loose from the finger, except if they continuously pressured by the thumb;
They are of difficult manufacture, with complex structures, which need many manufacturing stages;
They are disposable, which does not allow that the user has a dental hygiene device permanently at his disposal;
They do not constitute a set protected by a packet specially designed for toothpaste and their accommodation.
Therefore, there is a need for a portable brush, non-disposable, that is efficient in cleaning teeth and massaging gums, that is easy to attach to the finger, not getting loose easily, and that is simple, easy to handle and easy to manufacture; and that has a package specially designed for its accommodation and protection and for carrying a quantity of toothpaste.
It is an objective of the present invention to offer a handless dental hygiene device, which is portable and non-disposable.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a dental hygiene device that is easy to attach to the user""s finger and does not need additional resources for attachment, apart from the device itself.
It is also another objective of the present invention to provide a dental hygiene device that is possible to apply to different index fingers.
Obviously an objective of the present invention is to offer a dental hygiene device that cleans the teeth well and massages the gums properly.
Finally, it an objective of the present invention to provide a dental hygiene device that can be accommodated in a small protection package, adapted also to accommodate toothpaste.
In order to meet the objectives above, a device was developed that comprises a new configuration of a handleless toothbrush, easy to be carried, having its body manufactured of resilient plastic material with the approximate form of a thimble with no sides, to be attached specially on the first phalange of the index finger, that has, incorporated in its lower surface, a plurality of bristle rows radially laid out and, on its upper surface, a set of slots in relief to massage the gums, constituting a small device possible to be carried in the pocket or inside a small pouch or handbag, within a package specially designed for its accommodation, which includes an internal container to store a small quantity of toothpaste, thus permitting that the user has a complete portable kit of dental hygiene at his disposal and comfort.
The present invention would be more easily understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, that exemplify a proffered embodiment, and that will be described below.